ldakersIn this T R I P L E – R E V I E W, Robert Rost tries out canvas, brushes & paint for you!
In part I, he gives his first impression of:
➽ GERSTAECKER | PET RECYCLED painter’s canvas
➽ Old Holland | NEW MASTERS acrylic paint
➽ GERSTAECKER | MASTER brushes
And in part II & part III, he shows you how he sets up two studies in his Crowd paintings series. Make sure you check out the other two blogs by Robert;
➽ CROWD
➽ BREAKPOINT
GERSTAECKER – RECYCLED PET painter’s canvas – universally primed
It is triple universally primed. So, you can work on it with oil colours, some temperas and acrylics. It is as supple as a cotton or linen canvas, only a bit heavier: 420 g/m².
TIP! Each label shows how many recycled bottles have been used.
Here is a list of brushes I will be using;
GERSTAECKER | MASTER 1091 brush ○ round – synthetic hair
GERSTAECKER | MASTER 1090 brush ○ flat – synthetic hair
GERSTAECKER | MASTER 1092 brush ○ cat tongue – synthetic hair
GERSTAECKER | Spalter – hog bristle
Old Holland | NEW MASTERS acrylic paint
Old Holland | NEW MASTERS acrylic medium
I too am happy to contribute to making the waste mountain smaller and dealing sustainably with increasingly scarce raw materials – although it is important to me that alternative materials perform well!
Just a few days after my order, two 60 cm x 80 cm canvases and two 30 cm x 40 cm canvases were delivered along with the paints and brushes, and I could start testing and trying out the materials.
➽ RECYCLED PET canvas – my first impression….
Sturdiness & Resilience
Firstly, the quality of the stretcher frame is important. I immediately notice that the construction is sturdy. The wooden frame does not give too much when I try to bend it, and in the case of the 60 cm x 80 cm canvas, there is rightly an intermediate batten to prevent warping. The canvas is tightly stretched on the stretcher frame. When I tap on it, it already sounds like a drum – that’s how it should be, perfect!
TIP! There are also French formats – the classic formats from the 19th century.
Adhesion
This canvas is triple universally primed, so you can work on it right away. So, I do this because I’m curious to see how the paint will react to that standard preparation layer.
TIP! Of course, you can tweak the absorbency of the primer by applying another layer – or more – of gesso or primer yourself.
By the way, the canvas has a grammage of around 420 g/m² which is more than a standard canvas which is usually around 300 g/m² or 380 g/m² for cotton.
My first test consists of applying some acrylic paint thinned with water on the canvas. If you dilute acrylic paint with water, you actually dissolve the paint and it will lose adhesion.
With regular canvas you often see that the paint beads and does not adhere well. With inferior quality canvas, many white dots often appear in the paint – these are the spots where the paint cannot adhere to the canvas.
With this canvas, on the other hand, the paint picks up very well in diluted form and allows me to easily make a set-up with paint diluted with water. This is nice and also prevents me from immediately getting structures of thicker paint in the underpainting. Even when I thin – or rather dilute – the paint with a liquid medium, I get a nice even paint layer.
Here you can see where I have used New Masters Old Holland acrylic paint which has no beading due to its superior quality.
Here you can see the beading spots!
I test the same with oil colours thinned with a solvent (turpentine) and oil colours diluted with an oil paint medium. With both mixtures, the oil paint adheres well and I get a nice, even first layer to paint on. The paint adheres well both during application and after drying.
Grain
Because this canvas is made of plastic, the grain of the canvas is formed by a mould and not by the usual warp and weft. As you can see in the photo – which, by the way, I photographed at an oblique angle and under floodlight – it has a very regular and medium-fine texture. On the cut-outs, you can see how this structure turns out in practice!
➽ NEW MASTERS acrylic paint – my first impression….
This AAA quality approaches the colour strength, satin gloss and intensity of Old Holland’s famous CLASSIC oil paint. The acrylic paint for the new masters…says Old Holland itself!
I hadn’t tried this acrylic paint before – a great opportunity to investigate that claim by Old Holland!
This paint is highly pigmented, something I notice immediately as soon as I make mixtures on my palette and apply colours to the canvas. The colours are brilliant and do not quickly turn greyish or muddy even in mixtures with multiple colours.
This acrylic paint is quite firm in viscosity and reminds me of the texture of oil paints. I also notice while working that the stiffness of the paint and the way it handles is very similar to oil colours. It can be manipulated in the same way and used to measure texture – a nice experience when working with acrylic paint, which is often more fluid or creamy.
Another special feature is that after drying, the paint retains almost the same colour as in liquid, wet form. Indeed, with most acrylic colours, a colour shift usually occurs after drying, as the water evaporates and the binder changes colour as a result. Without colour shifting, the main rule is: what you see is what you get!
TIP! There are also metallic colours with a metallic look and iridescent colours with a pearlescent look. As well, with iridescent colours, which look different depending on the angle of the light and the angle at which you look at it.
For this experiment, I added 815 Iridescent jade and 810 Iridescent violet to my palette. I am curious about these colours, on their own and also when mixed with other colours.
As a test, I apply a thin layer of the iridescent jade on a cloth, over which I apply a thicker layer with a palette knife after drying. The result is a beautiful, brilliant layer of deep colour. The effect of reflection and the iridescence come together in a thick, even paint film with a beautiful finish.
The other colours I use are:
• 679 Phthalo blue
• 672 Ultramarine blue
• 645 Cadmium red medium
• 659 Quinacridone magenta
• 652 Alizarin crimson extra
• 619 Cadmium yellow-lemon
• Cadmium yellow medium
• 721 Burnt Sienna
• 728 Burnt umber
• 735 Ivory black extra
• 603 Titanium white extra opaque
I like to have an idea of how the paint behaves. Therefore, before I start painting, I make some trials with the paint. I make some swatches of the colours in pure and diluted form, mix the colours with white and with each other. This is to get to know the colours and find out how transparent or opaque the colours are and to see how strong the tinting strength is.
TIP! I use an acrylic medium to dilute my colours with and prevent under-bonding, so the colours retain all their good properties when diluted.
Below you can see the ultramarine Blue with the following;
left pure, centre cut with white, right diluted
The top three squares using Old Holland Acrylic Paint and the is Old Holland Oil Paint
I also compare the Ultramarine Blue with the same colour oil paint to see exactly where the differences are.
➽ MASTER brushes – my first impression….
These brushes have extreme resilience – what the English call the snap & the spring – and retain their shape.
This claim by Gerstaecker about the MASTER brushes is absolutely correct as far as I am concerned!
These brushes work very pleasantly. They give clean lines, pick up stiff acrylic paint easily and are perfect for pasty touches. They also keep their shape nicely and lie well in the hand.
I also use a regular spalter – an indispensable basic!
The Conclusion
Overall, the outcome of this material research is very positive.
➽ I am pleasantly surprised by the PET RECYCLED cloth. A good, stable surface that works well and is made of recycled material – highly recommended!
➽ The NEW MASTERS acrylic paint is of very nice quality with really beautiful, highly pigmented colours that give almost no colour shift when drying. I also find it interesting that the paint has some of the character of oil paints.
➽ I was also impressed by the quality of the MASTER brushes which give good control, absorb and release the paint well and also show a nice snap & jump and flexibility of the bristles.
Recommended for professionals, all three – ★★★★★ quality!
About Robert
Robert is a professional painter living and working in Rotterdam. He has a track record of murals, studio paintings & portraits.
Besides his painting practice, he has extensive experience in transferring knowledge about painting materials and techniques. For instance, he taught at the Willem de Kooning academy in Rotterdam and set up The Fine Art Collective in the Netherlands, with which he supported many academies and art students for years with seminars and projects on the use of materials in cooperation with museums and professional artists.
He still develops many activities related to education and training, but now more focused on artists, teachers and corporate staff. With his great passion for painting, he has dealt with many topics and themes, but lately he has been focusing mainly on the theme of Crowd painting.
© 2025 – text: Robert Rost & editors Gerstaecker NL | © 2025 – image: Robert Rost, Colourstock & editors Gerstaecker NL
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